Interesting stats on Africa’s mobile phone market

Did you know that there are more mobile phones in Uganda than there are light bulbs, and the average sub-Saharan woman touches her hair 37 times a day but checks her phone 82 times a day? [Who on earth conducted the research on 'hair-touching' in Africa?] On a more serious note – according to Damian Cook , founder and manager of E-toursim Frontiers, ABI Research a market intelligence company specializing in global technology markets, found that 821 million people in Africa owned a mobile phone by the end of 2012. And this figure is expected to rise to approximately 80% mobile phone penetration this year. 31% of Africans owned a Smart phone and this figure is also expected to rise. Also significantly, because for most mobile phone owners in Africa, their first exposure and interaction with the internet was via a mobile phone, they are far more likely to be very comfortable exploring, researching and booking travel via their mobile phone.

Given this trend it seems that conversion of websites to mobile sites is key.